Ouchies.... what is this pain?

[*Beema*]

DD is just over 2 weeks old and I've gone through the wringer a bit iwth BF'ing, but been there before so i know it will get better

All went well initially she had a good attachment, which went bad when my milk came in, she ended up cause nipple fissues on both sides, causing them to bleed when feeding, it was a bit scary how much they would bleed

But the fissures have been healing, I expressed for 5 min before a feed to soften them, I did a combination of lasinoh and BM/air drying to heal, and continued feeding through. But her attachment ended up just being a clamp and she would cause the fissues to reopen, so I went to a nipple shield which I used sucessfully with DD1 until she was 10 weeks old. We are able to achieve some "barenipple" feeding as well, when she isn't so ravenous and is much more realxed, usually the second or third attachment for the feed.

However this morning my LHS boob is hurting, it isn't the fissue as that pain was different, I am getting sharp shooting pains all over the breast and feeding is not at all comfortable on that side.

I have checked DD's mouth and my breast and there a not signs of thrush, but I am wondering if I do have it, and what the treatment would be as I don't want to give meds to DD2 if she has no signs of it.

What else could it be?

[Traveller]

Are there any red/hot patches on your breast, or any lumps near the pain? If so then it could be a blocked duct or mastitus, so express around the area that is hurting to relieve the pain.

[*Beema*]

Thanks Traveller Nope none of those, I had mastitis once with DD1 and gee it's a shocker, I also had a lot of blocked ducts with her, but "touch wood" haven't had one yet

The whole boob is soft/pliable, no lumps, redness or patches..

[wysiwyg]

I had thrush, which only manifested itself as the sharp shooting pains you describe and pains seemed to be deep in the boob, no sign of it in DD's mouth or any outward sign on my boob, the GP gave me a tablet Nilstat perhaps and some Daktarin gel for DD but said only had to use that if she showed signs, which she never did. I had read somewhere (maybe ABA book breastfeeding naturally) that thrush can present like that, so I went to GP suggesting thrush and she agreed, the Nilstat worked so I do think that is what it was. DD was maybe 2 months old at time.

[~clover~]

Sounds like its possibly thrush. Hard to tell though. From memory the pain kinda shoots from the nipple up the breast iykwim?
If it is, I used nilstat liquid. Its fluro yellow & sticks to BPs, so be careful (the yellow stains & the sticking to the BPs is painful if you forget, lol) but it works on you both at the same time. I put it on my nipple before feeding, that way it went into bub's mouth & wasn't swallowed straight away. Its sposed to stay in the mouth for a few seconds.
Not sure how you could tell without seeing the whiteness though. Maybe talk to either a chemist, or your gp. Or even a mw/mchn.

[*Beema*]

Thankyou wysiwyg and ~clover~ it definitely sounds like what you described, after your posts I rang the chemist to see what i could get over the counter, the chick thought it was mastitis even though I was certain it wasn't - been there done that and I had no symptoms of it, she told me to call the MW or GP to confirm, I called the MW at the hospital where I delivered and she agreed that is was likely to be thrush, rang the chemist again, they could give me Nilstat for Miss A, but nothing for me "over the counter" wihle BF'ing *sigh* so I called my GP, they had closed and got put through to the locum service, which I wouldn't normally use in this situation, but the girl was like that is fine, they are coming out to write me a script... that was 3 1/2 hours ago and they said 2-3 hours wait at the most... I hope they are here in the next hour because we were hoping to go out for dinner!

[~clover~]

Don't forget you can do like I said & put the nilstat on the nipple. It does work, I've done it twice, with DD2 & DS. Saves having two lots of dosing to do.

[Shanti]

Gah, double post.

[Shanti]

The girls have given some great advice already. I was going to say Thrush or Mastitus too. More thrush though..... I 2nd Nilstat on the nipple also

Hope you feel much better soon.

[Michelle71]

Daktarin oral gel can be obtained over the counter and is safe in breastfeeding. It is applied to the nipple.